Gettin down to fitness
Good afternoon, again. Sorry, spent the last two days now primarily at school. I’d like to say for the record that we are “on time” now!!! AND, with the work put in last evening, we are actually a couple of inches ahead! That is where we are going to go back to in a little bit. But, we figured we needed a little mental break from it. Both the first and now second time that we took this course, we have found ourselves feeling more anger toward the typical White American approach to minorities. I’m not sure if this wasn’t worked into the course design. We are being invited to step into the positions of minorities. This last couple of assignments has been going over issues with American Indians and Alaskan Natives. I have to say I’ve been pretty ignorant of most cultural issues. I feel very affected now; in a good way.
I know that I need to channel the feelings involved and the best way at the moment is to spend some time writing a paper that will help me incorporate what I am learning. I know that it makes a difference. I am glad I had a chance to read some stuff yesterday before commenting in class today. I can see my attitude changing. I believe in the Flylady’s perspective of “You are never behind just jump in wherever you’re at!” Well for the moment we are at home/school. I figure that’s as good a place to start as any. Hehehe, so I ummm, went and picked a couple of fights in the classroom. Naw, not that really REAL fights, but I did challenge some thoughts. If I never again hear how people, and in particular psychologists are going to “deal” with “them,” it would be too soon. It doesn’t seem to matter which minority group we are talking about, which is like a big point the author is making. People shouldn’t be “dealt with” … there has to be interaction. I also think thinking of “them” as troublesome because we are forgetting the we of us. It isn’t “their” problem. It is EVERY bodies problem! There is a whole more oppression out here than I ever considered. I’ll defer back to our favorite statement. “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” We feel strongly about this.
There is one woman in the course, who again today commented on another student’s paper. It was like she was wringing her hands saying, “Oh dear, it is bad. But, there is not much “I” can do to help them. Those poor things.” Yeegads. I tried to place her mentally standing next to an American Indian Chief saying, “Sorry Dear … I feel bad for you. Maybe we could hold a bake sale.” Drives me nutty. No, I am not above and beyond here … I hear her voicing her frustration too. It’s just that we have the opportunity to learn from cultures other than ours and if we’re smart, we’ll learn to do it today, rather than three years down the line when we graduate. It doesn’t mean I am going to work on Tuesday and grasp the hand of the first Hispanic person I see and shake it vigorously, because all of a sudden I’ve been hit by “the light!”
I’m just as confused now as ever, but we’re not going to settle with this. The thing I have always loved about psychology and the image of being able to learn about things we don’t understand. I figure if we listen hard enough we are going to learn how to better handle ourselves out there in the big wide world that begins as close as the elderly lady that lives across the hall. Well, no, we’re still not going to take down her garbage, but we can be more considerate in playing our music with headphones rather than loudly on the speakers and we can be more cautious in leaving our empty boxes outside our shared landing. I tried that already. I had umm forgotten them until she complained to the building people. Just hadn’t thought outside my needs. I figured they were pushed back. I wondered later how much I imposed on her aesthetic needs or feelings of intrusiveness in seeing garbage cartons stacked up in the corner. We did this for about 3 months. Real neighborly, hmm? I think they call this passive aggressive. The only contact I have had with her in five years was the first week when she left a note on my door telling me she would like it if I took down her garbage. See we aren’t all good, k? There’s lots of room for improvement. We’re pretty much the long sulky/brooding type.
What has this got to do with the tea in China? Well, probably not much … we’re just off on a tangent here.
Ok, seriously, we need a new plan … how are we going to change the world for the better? My little V-man with red cape who now sits on my right shoulder says, “Go to school. Learn.” Shoot, ok ok … getting the point. We’re going … just a little more break ok? Ahhh shhhhh, V’s napping! We should stop in the kitchen to see if he really ate that last éclair. Hmm?
*Damn*
Ok, what happened to seriously? We better check out the rest of our life. First thought is our friend. Kids still don’t need me. *frowny face* Ok, friend. He just caught up with us on line. He says that he can be here about 1 pm tomorrow and we would plan from there. He’s talking about getting a couple of new dresses, because he says ours are getting baggy. We’re of the opinion we could wear baggy all the way down to 140. I know, I know … we’re just like that. The other thing that has to get done, if it is open, is to get our driver’s license replaced. We’d lost ours and have been driving without since December. Ok, it gets worse … we don’t wear our seat belt. Ok, now you got the worst of it. I think that V-man is back. We’ll call him our Super V Ego.
Shoot, shoot. Just checked … tomorrow is an official day off for State facilities. Thought it might be. BUT, Tuesday they are open until 7 pm. Maybe we’ll have to try that. *Sigh*
I think we are going to make up a bed for Super V Ego on our left shoulder … AHA I know … I’ll make him a Jacuzzi! BUT, no wild women! Well, ok … maybe just one, but only one at a time! No hoarding!
Hmpf!
Dr. M. is still in the dog house. He is still making us cry. Don’t know what to do with all that. What happens if we just keep getting goofier and goofier. Shouldn’t this be in some kind of liability clause??
Double Hmpf!
Ok, next? Hmm, WORK! We haven’t talked about work in a couple of days. Maybe you all think we were taking a break?? Hmm, not so much I want to really talk about there. Feel some distance from it. We’re still frustrated because so many peoples’ cabs come while we’re having the Thinking Group. Get’s to be that the last 15 minutes we’re dealing with a ghost town. Before that it was ok. During the first part we called up the four clients that haven’t been clapping during the entertainment sing/dance practice for the spring fundraiser. Not sure how that took up our attention, but it did. I think because they looked like they were having a bad time. We have a lot of fun though in this group. We got them partner clappers and turned up the music good and high and did some great encouraging. Hehehe. You should have seen the gloomiest one, he did the most terrific job of clapping I’d ever seen! Not sure what wires had been crossed on that one. I’m thinking he just needed a little space and attention. YAYYYY!!!
The third part of the hour was terrible. See above, but during the middle part, we figured we wanted them to understand how easy it was to start their new exercise program we haven’t really developed yet, but we were pretty sure we wanted them to understand evaluating their own efforts. We wanted something that they could all do on their own and from home in their bedrooms. So, we called 5 people at a time to volunteer to run in place. We didn’t want a law suit or nothing, so we timed them for 30 second intervals. In between we asked them if it had been easy, hard, or so-so. If it was hard, we had them sit down and another volunteer would come up. We only had one runner who made it the full 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Does this convey how much work is necessary? We then had ummm, a little talk. We definitely included in the dialogue questions as to what was happening with the people who didn’t even volunteer! Sheeesh. Pretty much we congratulated the person who had volunteered that she’d really thought about volunteering. We gave her a big yayyyyyyyyyy, and then we suggested that as a goal for the chair sitterers - that they at least seriously consider volunteering to run next time. If we can get the non-clappers to clap, I’m pretty sure we can do this too! Hehehe
Yup, yup someone pays me to do all this!
I know, I know … some of you are thinking … that one … her cap isn’t really screwed down tightly … like someone who resembles an open tube of toothpaste. But, just the same here we are in the middle of life and it just keeps progressing. YES … we’re going FORWARD!!! Double Sheeeesh.
Hmm, thinking we are feeling a little light headed. Maybe its time to eat lunch … we’re a couple hours off … that’s the nice thing of being home … we can eat when we want to Let me check out the freezer
Whoops a little too dizzy … we got up too fast and by the time I got to freezer the light headedness blanked out my vision for a couple seconds thought I was going down. We DIDN’T though. Super Deb Ego just took up V’s shoulder. But, just to make sure, we’re eating some peanut butter now as the stuff unfreezes in the microwave.
Ahhh, all better … eaten lunch and talked to V a few moments. He’s UP! We also got a couple of mails saying that the second set of books are on its way and the scale … just shipped. On a SUNDAY even! The first set of books came in on Friday right before group. I have to figure out how to use them best. I included a picture above of the daily log we’ll be using for the groups. I was just taking a look at it. It seems broken down by heart, strength, attitude, and diet notes primarily. Think that’s a great idea for our structure and the clients/staff. We figure that we should teach the clients to exercise to music rather than worrying them about timers. Most don’t understand numbers well. Most everyone has music though. Figure most songs 3-5 minutes … that won’t overdue anything. There isn’t a lot of writing room and that is good, because of similar difficulties. But, I could see if they were interested in taking the book log home and asking someone to fill it in for them.
For the aerobic heart exercises we can teach running or walking in place. Just thinking it would be a really cool goal if by this time next year the clients could all stand up at the spring fundraiser and walk/run in place for a songs time or two. That has to be just as fulfilling to the parents as any pre-established dance/song number. Hmm, I wonder if Sister would buy that. It be pretty something … we could set a one year goal with pounds lost for the center too. Hmm. Interesting. We were looking through the calorie books we got on Friday too. We brought our copy home and gave one of the DSPs who had stayed later her copy. First thing she had to look up was double cheese burger from Mickydonalds. Yeeks! Just to be fair, we looked up our sub sandwiches from subway. The low fat might be ok on calories, but they sure do add a lot of salt to their meats!!
Ack … it’s the next morning already. We lost the rest of the day to reading material about fitness. Think we are going to post and start again … sorry about that.
posted by Ann Marie @ 2/20/2006 05:06:00 AM
Comments: 5
